Carnival Excursions

[cherbear4000]

I think in this port, I would prefer to do a ship sponsored tour. My question is what Carnival excursion have you done in Belize and would you recommend it?

[ferfoodle]

We too felt better about taking a Carnival excursion here. We did the Altun Ha Mayan site and River Wallace. Although a good tour, it was advertised as 5.5 hours. Wrong - it was about 8 hours. The Xunantunich Mayan tour is advertised as 7 hours (which is why we chose the shorter of the two as we did not want to be gone that long) and theirs was shorter than ours.The last tender was set for 4:15 and we got back to port at 5pm. The ship was held up for us of course, but I also saw that the previous Western on Liberty, a CCer posted their tour for this lasted over 7 hours. Most of it is spent getting to and from the Mayan site. It made for a very long day and I would not recommend this tour. Hind sight, I wish we chose one of the tours that went snorkling and to a private beach. We spoke to several who had done this and they all said they enjoyed it and got back to the ship with enough time to tender in to port if they wanted to.

[smitty3000]

We did the Altun Ha Mayan site and River Wallace back in late November and enjoyed it It was a full day but for us the longer the tour the better. We got back in time to do a little shopping. There was a huge line to get back on the tender to go back to the ship so we just stayed and shopped and then got back on the last tender. It was a very interesting day. I actually liked the river part better than the ruins. We wanted to see the area and with this tour I felt like you got a real feel for it. The people who conducted the tour were very friendly and knowledgeble. I would highly recommend it. We did stop for people to get a quick bite to eat but we didnt eat anything so can't comment on how the food was. They do provide you with water. From what I have read on these boards, it is better to do a ship tour at this port. I was a little nervous about it but I felt very safe the entire tour.

[Chinchbug]

We opted for the Carnival Altun-Ha/ River Wallace excursion, too. We usually plan our excursions on our own- but didn't want to get left behind. We enjoyed it very much, although I think I had four heart attacks on the bus ride- can't believe we didn't hit anything. The ruins tour was ok- we got to climb to the top- but it was all guided with very little free time. There was a stop for lunch (our expense)- the food was ok, but nothing memorable. We really liked the river portion. We saw quite a few monkeys, a couple crocs, some manatees, and exotic birds, iguanas, etc. It wasn't as long as the other poster's tour, though. We had plenty of time at the end to shop and hang out at the Wet Lizard for Belicans and lobster fritters with some other CCers.

[marshhawk]

I don't believe that Carnival offers this anymore, but the last time we were there, we went snorkeling at Goff's Caye. DH said that the waters in Cozumel had a "zillion" more fish, but the surf was rough, and that may have explained some of the lack of fish, that and there were 35 of us all thrashing and kicking-would have scared a school of shark...LOL, but once the initial snorkel experience was over, we got to just BE on the island and it was beautiful-

 

Even if you don't go here, when the ships are leaving Belize, this is the last island you see before you are back in the ocean. It is on the edge of the largest coral reef in the northern hemisphere....